Sunday, September 28, 2008

Black Swallowtail Butterfly

I'mmmmmbaccccck......................................................:). It has been awhile since I have had a chance or the inspiration to blog. Since the flood consumed my whole life and every free moment, the moments that were not taken over by the repair work were eaten up by stress. But it is all done now...........finally. What a terrible summer. I'm glad fall is here, winter is even not looking too bad :).

The last two summers I have planted an herb bed with fennel to attract black swallowtail butterflies, it worked! This year I brought one inside to watch it spin it's cocoon and hopefully turn into a butterfly. I am thrilled to say that is was a success and fun to watch, we released the butterfly into the same herb bed, it merrily flew away. I am going to do the same thing next year, my daughter in law who teaches kindergarten wants one for her classroom.

I noticed the dashboard for blogging looks all different so I am off to check that out and see what this follow thing is all about..........

Welcome back! I've never had a Black Swallowtail in my garden. Perhaps because I don't grow fennel?

I, too, hope this winter is not as bad as last. I fear it might be...the hummers are gone already! This is the shortest stay I've ever seen. And the numbers that went through!! My lord - we had 20-30 around the feeders all day long. I've never seen that either.

I'm glad you got everything to rights after the flood. Ginni Dee is using it as an excuse for a basement make-over! LOL What did you do?

Morning glory, I feel the same way, I get excited when I see the fennel plant stripped naked :).

Sally, I love my new basement now, I never would have done it voluntarily but now that it is done, I love the new basement, I even have a craft room, of course I have no time to craft but maybe some day.

Ginni, it was great fun watching the chrysalis turn into something so beautiful.

We captured a Monarch catepiller this summer for the grand-girls, but it escaped before we took it inside ... Oh, well, I'll try again next year. What fun! Do you put fresh plant material in for them to eat?

Connie, when I brought in the caterpillar I did put some fennel in the jar, it spun its chrysalis shorting there after so it did not eat much of the fennel. I released it as soon as it turned into a butterfly, I wanted it to go make more butterflies :).

I did the exact same thing this summer with the same type of butterfly and posted on it. My pictures are no where as nice as yours though. Are you in Cedar Rapids? I used to have a friend who lived there and we visited her two three years ago when she graduated from college in Iowa City. It is very beautiful in Iowa and I love that black soil and nice grass.